Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Fall arrives with glam-goodness as we kick off GB20 with a rare demo track from one of England’s influential commodities, Japan. Before the band went pioneering underground in their art/ambient/electronic direction, Japan were quite keen on sounding brash and explosive, mixing up New York Dolls glam with Parliament Funkadelic groove.

Their debut “Adolescent Sex” is a classic must-have. We uncover a rough demo from 1977 of the song that would become the titletrack for that 1st release.

Rattlesnake Shake were one of L.A.’s hopefuls from ‘87-’89... How bands like Junkyard and The Hangmen got deals when they didn’t is one of those head scratchers that leaves you guessing. Jimmy Thrill had all the goods of a superstar, and is out to prove now that he's still got that 'crazy look.'

In our exclusive interview, Jimmy recounts his working relationship with the late legendary Kiss manager Bill Aucoin, his days of running rampant with Taime Downe as he recalls “I hung out with their band, I was part of their band. It was weird, it’s like Vicky Hamilton would order them a limo for a show let’s say at the Troubador and I was in that limo with them. I was just sorta Taime’s dude.”

He also talks about the new EP that’s released this month, that of which is worth checking out. Hell, it’s worth the 5 bucks alone just for the greatness that is “Shooting Daggers.”

Rattlesnake’s seemed to be everywhere back then, you had Motley singing it, Electric Angels had theirs, so no surprise to find another L.A. band with their street appeal called Lypswitch (pictured above) singing a sleazy lil ditty “Rattlesnake Skin.”

There’s only one doucheband contestant this month, and when you get a load of Rockdolls, you’ll understand just why.

The ‘cast closes with ex-Jellyfish guitarist Jason Falkner doing his nicely beat up version of Def Leppard’s “Photograph.”